These men and women get what education is about: creating a learning community, passion, character, and love. They get to the true spirit of the vital work of inspiring young people to meet the future with confidence and courage. During the two days I shared with them my vision of turning schools into a community. This community of leaders, imperfectly and humanly, are living this vision, as a “possibility of living into, not a standard to live up to…”

A community is a place where work is meaningful, not just menial, where you support people to be genuine contributors, not just “task doers,” where people are honestly valued, rather than used up, where you invite intentional conversations, not just superficial exchanges. Communities are places where classrooms and hallways are transformed into a village, where there is a sense of belonging, shared vision, pride, ownership, and a commitment to service; where “command performance” is replaced with a bone deep commitment to courageously seek participation. Community is where paint-by-number management programs are replaced with a profound, yet simple regard for realness, honesty, and respect for the dignity of everyone, which in turn results in an authentic expression of the human spirit.

Fostering this kind of culture is akin to being a gardener. It can’t be legislated, controlled, coerced, or even motivated. No plants ever grow better because you demand that they do so or because you threaten them. Plants grow only when they have the right conditions and are given proper care. Creating the space and providing the proper nourishment for plants – and people as well – is a matter of continual investigation and vigilance.

Great leaders in education, as well as teachers, don’t often get much public recognition. And they don’t seek it. They’re too busy contributing to the lives of our future leaders. But I felt it was important to acknowledge and celebrate the success of this remarkable group of true professionals.  My hats off to you St. Albert Protestant School leaders. I am a better person for  having spent two days with you.

David Irvine, Speaker and Author

Learn the difference between a successful life and a meaningful life.

Success means to:

• Define your own success on your terms, not what others tell you it should be;
• Dream big;
• Remember that the purpose of a dream is not to achieve it; the purpose of a dream is to inspire you to become the person it will take to achieve it.
• Learn to handle money: spend less than you make; invest before you spend; start saving now; buy less than you can afford.
• Remember the five laws of success: 1) Show up on time; 2) Keep your promises; 3) See all blame as a waste of time; 4) Be polite; 5) Give more than you get paid for.

Meaning means to:

• Know what you value, and don’t lose your values on the path to success.
• Not miss out on the experience of living while you are making a living.
• Follow your heart, that part of you that lies beneath your impulses and need for approval, that won’t settle for less than you can become, that knows you are meant to be extraordinary and contribute to the world’s evolution.
• Learn the true meaning of love and service to others – the true source of happiness.
• Remember that all joy ultimately comes to you in the present moment; you’ll never find joy in the past or the future.
• Keep alive the spirit of your youth: your sense of wonder, adventure, and love of life. Maintaining your youth as you grow into the wisdom of your age, is a work of art worth going for.

Hayley was a fan of Jack Layton. I think it’s appropriate to leave you with Jack’s final message to Canada before his death this week. Whether or not you agreed with his political policies, you simply couldn’t argue with his passion, his vision, and his love – for the citizens of this country and those who spend a lifetime serving. A great leader, he always made time for people.

“My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.”

David Irvine, Speaker and Author

Walt Disney was viewed by many early in his career to be anything but successful. In fact, some believed him to be a dismal failure. He had a number of business failures, he went bankrupt, and he was even told that as a cartoonist he had no real talent. So did he quit trying? No. Walt Disney was not a quitter. H was a dreamer who dared to think outside the box. Walt Disney spoke of  “Four C’s To Success In Life”: Curiosity, Confidence, Courage, and Constancy and that the greatest of these is Confidence. He said that when you believe in something, you must believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionably.

What would you attribute to your success in life? What would you tell a high school graduating class?

David Irvine, Speaker and Author

“Breathing New Life Into The Public Service: It Starts With You. That’s the title of the conference I recently attended. Best-selling author, David Irvine was the speaker for the day. He speaks about leadership, accountability and well, life. He inspires me and challenges me almost as powerfully as my faith. I heart David Irvine.

Now, about breathing new life into the Public Service and about how it starts with me. Sigh. I was thinking about passing on what I learned from the conference about organizational culture and how it’s up to me to make it a great one. I could also talk about accountability and how it’s about people being able to count on me. Or about leadership and how I can’t be promoted to be a leader, I have to earn it.

There’s so much I learned that day and I’m so pumped about it that I want to just blog about it all.

In my eight pages of notes from the session about culture, leadership, accountability and authenticity, there is one thing that I have learned. It’s so simple and so seemingly easy that you might fall off your chair when I tell you. Either that or tilt your head and go, “Really?” Yes. Really. So here it is. Friends, I’ve simply learned to PAUSE.

In the everyday challenges of work and life, I have learned to pause.

On my way to work, someone cuts me off. Pause.

Someone complains my ear off about something they don’t plan to change. Pause.

I get back my 360 degree feedback. Pause.

I present something I’m passionate about and someone rolls their eyes. Pause.

Pause. Pause. Pause!

It’s fascinating what we can do within an itty-bitty pause.

Within that pause I can choose to put on the full rage and let it ruin my whole day or shrug it off and let it go.

Within that pause I can choose to participate in a boy bashing, work bashing, boss bashing session or exercise my right to excuse myself from a potentially toxic conversation that helps no one.

Within that pause I can choose to find out who gave me a 3.5 (out of 5) score on leadership abilities and hurt them very badly or humble myself and accept the fact that I’m not perfect and I have oh so many “areas of improvement”.

Within that pause I can choose to let that eye-rolling dude break me down or use him as a stepping stone to break through my insecurities.

Within that pause I can choose to complain or do what I can to help fix the system.

That little pause breathes new life into my reactions. And when I breathe new life into my reactions, I breathe new life into my work… and breathe new life into my team… new life into my department… and yes, breathe new life into the Public Service.”

David Irvine, Speaker and Author

Aside from the warriors who are putting their lives and their future health on the line to save the nuclear plant, we are also not hearing of the looting, gun-fights, and violence so common in the midst of these kind of disasters elsewhere.

This culture and these heroes have something to teach all of us who face our own catastrophes in life. What is there to be learned?

Driven prematurely from the sport at the age of 28 because of bone spurs and nerve damage in his neck, Gary staged one of the most astonishing comebacks in recent memory, enduring two surgeries and extensive rehab to return to play for several more seasons with Carolina, Florida, Pittsburgh, and Tampa Bay.

“I had something taken away from me that I loved, the game of hockey,” Gary explains. “And like it’s often said, you don’t really know how much you love something until it’s gone. My desire to play again is what led me to becoming immersed in health. The injury changed my life. The fact that I began to train properly and eat right allowed me to come back and play 13 more years.”

Now, at the age of 44, Gary proclaims he’s in better shape than he was when he came to training camp at the age of 18. Since retiring from hockey in 2009, Gary now trains and coaches young elite hockey players in the area of fitness and nutrition.

This is leadership at it’s finest: Taking your trials and turning them into talents.

What’s your story?

My daughter’s best friend, an amazing, authentic young woman, was valedictorian at her high school graduation this week. Here’s a couple of paragraphs from her speech:

“I think that sometimes people are too terrified of failure, and they let it stop them,” Janelle told her graduating class. “You are never a loser for trying. Never. To be honest, one of my favourite quotes comes from Little Miss Sunshine, of all places. When the grandpa is questioned on what a loser means, he says, ‘a real loser is someone who’s so afraid of not winning, they don’t even try.’”

“There’s a preconceived notion surrounding us,” Janelle continued, “that condemns one to be a loser simply for not being the best, or being imperfect. Please, never, ever let yourselves be degraded into believing this. I implore you all to have faith in  yourselves; have faith in your dreams; Our goals are unique and deserve respect; we shouldn’t let anyone make  us inferior for holding on to them. Success doesn’t lie in brilliance or being consistently perfect in all your endeavors. You’d never learn anything that way. Success is discovering, growing, breaking, fixing, and all things to do with uncertainty. Success holds holds a different definition for each person, and no definition is inferior to another. There are so many ways to be successful, and it’s something that each one of us is going to discover for ourselves…”

Thank you, Janelle, for the inspiration of your authentic presence, not just in this speech, but in the influence you have had in my life since you first connected  with our family fourteen years ago. I’m a better person for knowing you. May we all be a little more attuned to the wisdom of our amazing youth, that have so much to teach us about living authentically.